* Hannah Meisel is on the ground…

…Adding…Today’s coverage from Capitol News Illinois…

Prosecutors delved into McCann’s alleged scheme to rent out a motor home and trailer – which they also allege he purchased illegally with campaign funds – to himself on an Airbnb-style website called RV Share.

McCann registered as an owner of the camper vehicles under the name Sam McCann and then made a second account with his given name, William McCann, to rent them. The phone numbers on the two accounts were the same. […]

“We can’t wait to get on the open road,” McCann allegedly wrote to himself from his renter account.

The government is expected to rest its case by Thursday morning.

* Here’s her coverage from yesterday for Capitol News Illinois…

Assistant U.S. Attorney Tim Bass pulled no punches in describing former Republican state Sen. Sam McCann on the first day of his federal corruption trial on Tuesday.

“This case is about greed, fraud and arrogance,” Bass said. “Greed for a lifestyle far beyond his means…fraud in obtaining that lifestyle…and arrogance in continuing that lifestyle (even after being) confronted by law enforcement.”

McCann stands accused of illegally using campaign funds for personal expenses, including paying two mortgages, financing multiple vehicles and vacations, fraudulently cutting himself checks for work not performed, and double-dipping on reimbursement for miles driven.

The trial finally got underway Tuesday morning after a week of delays stemming from McCann’s sudden hospitalization the previous weekend. U.S. District Judge Colleen Lawless ordered him arrested and detained last Friday for violating her direct orders to communicate with the federal probation office after being discharged from the hospital.

* AP…

In what Bass termed “an egregious example,” McCann bought an RV and a trailer, put them up for rent through an online service, then “split himself in two” by using two different names: Sam McCann offered the vehicles for rent while William McCann leased them with political contributions. […]

Cynthia Miller, who was hired for McCann’s successful 2010 Senate campaign and continued working in his Senate district office, testified to the friction that developed with McCann as she started seeing disbursements that didn’t seem appropriate.

There were checks to McCann’s bank labeled “rent” that made no sense. Miller testified that she wasn’t aware of a political account for McCann until a statement arrived that listed spending on jewelry and a water park in the Chicago suburb of Gurnee. When she questioned him about reimbursing himself for mileage while using a campaign debit card to buy gasoline for the same vehicles, Miller said McCann gave her the routine answer given for other expenditure inquiries.

“He basically said I didn’t need to worry about that or it wasn’t any of my business,” said Miller, who told McCann to enter such transactions himself on Illinois State Board of Elections campaign disclosure statements.

* SJ-R…

Bass blasted McCann for continuing the scheme even after he left office in 2019 and after he had twice been on notice for violations of campaign finance rules, with a complaint being filed for misidentifying travel expenses in 2016 and an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Internal Revenue Service in 2018.

[Bass] said that even after meeting with FBI and IRS officials regarding the alleged violations, he continued to do them, setting up another bank account in the name of his wife, Vicki and his mother-in-law, continuing to deposit money. […]

At the end of his opening argument, Bass pled with the court to hold McCann accountable for his alleged actions before he brought out his first of at least four witnesses to come before the court. […]

Witness testimony is scheduled to continue at 9 a.m. Wednesday as the federal government continues to make its case against McCann.